“If they don’t, they should.” She grinned up at him. “They were freaking adorable.”

“Aren’t they? They are the nicest people, too.”

“Lucky for them they were already married when they found out they were a Diamond Match.”

He nodded, eyes softening. “Takes some pressure off, I’d imagine.”

Jess would look away, but she couldn’t. Her feelings weren’t growing in a measured, linear way. In the past hour they’d expanded exponentially, like a wave inside her. It was the way she imagined a tsunami might approach San Diego: calm ocean surface until a wall was suddenly crashing over the shore. She stared at him, and all she could think about was how much she wanted him to touch her.

A clinking rose in the room; it was quiet and unobtrusive at first but built into a clattering of silver on crystal all around them. Jess looked around, confused. Awareness sank in, but River was still wearing an expression of frank confusion.

“Oh shit,” she whispered.

“What?” he asked frantically as everyone began to chant, “Kiss, kiss, kiss.”

River’s eyes widened, and Jess witnessed the moment comprehension landed. “Oh, God.”

“It’s okay.” She put a warm smile on her face and turned to face him. They had an audience. River was shy and Jess was deeply private, and this was a nightmare! But no big deal! Soulmates! As presented to this room full of investors, Jess and River kissed, like, all the time.

He mirrored her grin, but Jess hoped hers was way more convincing. “We should have anticipated this,” he gritted out.

“Well, we didn’t,” she whispered, running a coy hand down his chest. The feeling was a bit like being submerged in warm champagne. “We don’t have to if you don’t want.”

“No, we can,” he said immediately, leaning in and toying intimately with a strand of her hair. “I mean, unless you don’t want to?”

His breath smelled like mint and whiskey. Frankly, Jess wanted to.

River looked at her in question as the clattering intensified. But then his eyes flickered away nervously.

“Hey. It’s just me.”

His brow relaxed, and he nodded, breath trembling. “Okay.”

River’s eyes dipped to her mouth.

Are we doing this?

He stepped to her—

I guess we’re doing this.

—bending, sliding one hand up her neck to cup her jaw and leaving a trail of carbonated heat on her skin. He leaned in—she stopped breathing—and his mouth came over hers.

Together, they exhaled in relief, and everything fell away: sound, light, other people. She felt the sag in him, too, the confirmation that they were right to think it would feel this good. One short kiss, and then a longer one, just his mouth covering hers and then coming back to taste again. Just to see.

A valiant collection of neurons in her brain screamed a reminder that fifty pairs of eyes were on them right that second, but even that awareness didn’t keep her from reaching for the lapels of his coat, pulling him flush up against her.